Kragujevac: Election Campaign at Its Height

AIM Podgorica, September 14, 2000

(By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

Apart from election posters and banners, the best sign that the election campaign of the ruling coalition in Serbia is at its height are the shots of opening ceremonies and cutting of ribbons in significant facilities the state television is bombing us with. There were just a few such ceremonies in Kragujevac: the Republic used the “punitive” method in Kragujevac, in order to show that there can be neither new facilities nor development without the Socialists. All the efforts of representatives of local authorities to demonstrate that the city is in an unequal position when distribution of the Republican budget is concerned just because councilmen of Zajedno (Together) coalition have the majority in the city assembly remained futile. During all their visits Republican delegations skirted in a wide circle the city assembly and local communities in which the citizens had decided to refuse to place their confidence in the Socialists.

The ceremony of opening of the grandiose building of the Second Kragujevac High School, at which Republican prime minister Mirko Marjanovic cut the ribbon in the presence of the whole retinue of his party comrades, is an exception in the city called the “valley of hunger”. None of the city leaders got the invitation to be present at the opening ceremony. They simply do not exist for the Republican authorities, as if those who voted in favour of Together coalition were not the very same citizens who the mouthpieces of the ruling coalition are constantly referring to in their speeches.

Since there are no new facilities and red ribbons to be cut, the Socialists have chosen the already tested election campaign with sacks of potatoes, sugar, flour, detergent, which proved to be more than efficient among the hungry and worn out population. With the obvious goal to make the people forget for a moment the misery and the hunger and vote for the same ones who have dragged the country to the very bottom, this campaign is not only humiliating and insulting, but it affects the very core of human dignity and the right to living. In these pre-election days, in the streets of Kragujevac, citizens can be seen hauling rations in all kinds of transportation means, from barrows, hand-carts, to bicycles and cars even. Distribution of sacks implies queueing, which does not exactly fit in the idyllic picture of satisfied and sated citizens, but in order to get their rations that the state is so generously distributing, there is nothing wrong with waiting a bit.

In half-deserted halls of factories in Kragujevac, long queues of workers are waiting, many of whom have not come for years to the factory except to get their sack of potatoes they receive “thanks to engagement of the factory management and trade union”. This engagement has especially intensified in the past few days while accompanied by flashlights of cameras and numerous journalists, under the slogan of “concern for the standard of living of the workers and their families”, contracts between managers of big factories and food producers are being signed.

A few days ago, to general satisfaction, director of Zastava management board, Miljko Eric, signed an agreement on delivery of packages of beef and pork for all the workers of the industries until the end of the year, noting that packages of chicken have already been distributed. On television, everybody was satisfied and happy, from the director to the president of the trade union. “And this is not all; until the end of the year it is planned to supply all the workers, thanks to the help of the Republican government, with certain quantities of sugar, flour, oil and detergent”, said Miljkovic and reminded of the words of the Republican prime minister who said during his stay in Kragujevac that “when Zastava works, so does the whole of Serbia”.

There are also queues in the streets, in front of shops in which it is possible to purchase foodstuffs that are there is a shortage of. Just “Srbija” trading company delivered to the citizens of Kragujevac 500 tons of sugar, 200 of which through stores and 300 through factory trade union organisations. In the course of this months, through the association of pensioners, “Srbija” delivered 30 tons of sugar and 300 thousand litres of oil.

Queues are also formed every day in front of the entrance to the building of public revenue building where it is possible to pay taxes on income and property with children's and maternity allowance bonds. Bonds are sold at price which is twice lower than the nominal. By principle “anything will do”, owners of bonds who mostly have neither taxes nor income, sell coupons they received instead of children's allowance for an amount lower than half the received value in order to buy the things they need.

A thirty-year old man from Kragujevac is selling a pile of bonds embittered by the manner in which his children's allowance was paid and says that “the children need milk and fruit and not worthless paper”: “We are waiting for two years for something we are entitled to and when you finally think you have got your money, it is just yet another deceit like who knows how many times before”, he says and adds that he will give the bonds for any compensation just in order to get some cash he needs to buy clothes for his children.

A sixty-year old woman is waiting in line in front of a supermarket. No goods have arrived yet, but she is convinced that some product which cannot be found on the shelves but one must always have in the household will arrive in the course of the day: “What would I do at home anyway. I have company here, and time goes by quickly talking with people. There is a place where you can sit, too, so it's easier for me to wait. We all know each other well by now”, she says and to the question whether she will vote in the forthcoming elections she answers indifferently: “they are all the same when they come to power”.

It seems that the longest queue is in front of the central pharmacy. There are quite a seriously ill people or those suffering from a chronic illness who all hold bundles of recipes. A woman who is about thirty says she suffers from a serious chronic illness and that the only way for her to get the drug she needs is to wait in line, because she cannot buy it with the salary she receives because she is more on paid leave than she actually works. “I have no choice, so I have to wait. While I'm waiting at least I have some hope that I'll go home with the drug, and even that is a kind of therapy”, she says and to the question what she expects from the elections, she answers “let anyone come as long as this agony ends”.

As the election campaign is gaining momentum, queues are becoming longer and the variety of products the regime is offering to its loyal voters greater. Besides bread, the people need games. Aware of that, besides free distribution of food, the regime has decided to offer sports and amusements, as well. Based on the protocol on cooperation signed by the management of Zastava industries and Radnicki football club, free entrance was provided for all the citizens of Kragujevac – sports fans - who wished to watch the big spectacle – the football match between Crvena Zvezda and Partizan.

Olivera S. Tomic

(AIM)